Telarus Reveals New Cloud Consulting Tools To Ease Vendor Selection, Solution Design Process For Partners

Telarus wants to ease the burdensome process of designing complex cloud solutions and narrow the vast playing field of vendors and providers for channel partners.

To that end, the Sandy, Utah-based master agent is launching three new consulting and solution design tools to its Matrix Portfolio for its channel partners. The new matrixes, revealed on Thursday during Telarus' annual partner conference, will assist partners selling cloud, contact center, and cyber security solutions.

"Not only will the new tools help our partners become better consultants, but I think it's going to help partners talk about some of these new technologies knowing they have some tools to rely on," Patrick Oborn, Telarus' co-founder, told CRN.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Telarus Goes Global, Bringing Master Agent Model into Australia And New Zealand]

The Cloud Computing Matrix will show partners which providers offer popular cloud products, including disaster recovery as-a-service and desktop as-a-service. Similarly, the Cyber Security Matrix will display security providers that offer capabilities such as DDoS, SIEM, anti-virus, endpoint protection, and other managed security services. The Contact Center Matrix will let partners drill down to find providers with specific features, including chat bots and work force optimization.

"[Partners] can click on the features they are looking for, and the rest of the providers that don't offer it just fall off the grid. Or, it can be used to search by vendors and only pull up the ones that the partner wants to look at," Oborn said.

The sheer number of cloud providers and products to choose from can be daunting for solution providers, especially those that may be new to selling cloud offerings. The three new matrixes will allow partners to more quickly rule out vendors and solutions in order to find a provider or product that is a good fit for their end-customer, Oborn said.

"We've put a lot of time and effort into helping our partners differentiate between the 160 suppliers we now have," he said.

Alongside the three new solution design tools, Telarus also unveiled upgrades to its two existing Matrixes for partners. The Unified Communications Matrix 2.0 and the SD-WAN Matrix 2.0 now feature a ’quick filter" function that lets partners pare down the number of providers that match a customer’s specific criteria with a single click, Telarus said.

Speed, transparency and simplicity are important when it comes to solution selling, Oborn said. The new tools, coupled with the two existing matrixes, will help partners not only make recommendations to their clients, but also provide a quote for a new service quickly. This could cut days off of the sales process, he added.

Telarus in 2017 acquired mobility-focused master agent CarrierSales. The master agent also scooped up network monitoring company VXSuite in 2015. To reflect its patented technology, its focus on next-generation solutions and its position in the master agent market, Telarus on Thursday announced the re-launch of its web site. The new Telarus.com gives agents, MSPs, and VAR partners a place to learn about cloud selling and how to find the right suppliers, Telarus said.